Wanna see a Steaming Big Boy?

[RetroLounge]

UP: Union Pacific Big Boy
4-8-8-4: Wheel arrangement
68: 68 inch drivers
23 3/4 - 23 3/4: Cylinder diameters (front and rear)
32: Piston stroke
540: 540,000 pounds of weight on drivers
Length: 130 Feet
Weight: 772,000 lbs

RL

[On the Road]

1. If I Recall Correctly,

that was the largest locomotive engine ever produced in the US.

Back in 1989, as a young management employee of Bell Atlantic, I had to travel to Scranton, Pennsylvania for three weeks to serve as an operator during a strike. Scranton is a once-proud coal and railroad town in serious decline. The hotel I stayed in was right on the railroad tracks downtown, and the Big Boy was parked immediately behind the hotel like a museum piece. I remember it well walking back to the room at 11PM.

[RetroLounge]

2. I finally saw one in real life last year

OMG! How did anything that huge stay on the rails? Amazing...

RL